1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to embedding command signals in a video signal. Specifically, this invention is directed towards systems and methods for embedding command signals in a video signal to indicate that at least one next frame is selected for further manipulation.
2. Description of Related Art
Television has become the largest conveyor of information in society today. Programming ranges from general entertainment features to educational programs, such as cooking or home improvement programming, to highly technical seminars or repair and installation manuals. Furthermore, programming in the educational fields is becoming far more popular, with many universities hosting campuses around the world which are interconnected via satellite links. Additionally, a growing number of individuals and companies alike are creating their own video or multimedia presentations.
Even though a tremendous amount of information can be presented to the average person through video data signals displayed on a television or monitor, viewers miss a considerable amount of information simply because the information was not displayed long enough for the viewer to copy it or write it down. Alternatively, if the viewer is not anticipating a change in the video, this could also lead to missed information. For example, nearly everyone has encountered the situation where further information or a product was desired in response to a commercial or a specific piece of programming. Information was flashed on the screen at the end of the program or commercial for a second or two. However, the viewer is often unable to capture enough of the contact information or the telephone number to enable the viewer to follow up.
New methods are being explored to distill the essential content of a video in order to further compress the amount of physical information required to enable a user to grasp the gist of the program. For example, current techniques to segment a video signal into its respective important frames involve a viewer watching the entirety of the video with a finger on an image capture button just in case a suitable, representative image for capture should be displayed.
Video editing devices, as well as video printers, capture images, i.e., at least one frame, from a video signal and perform some predetermined function on the one or more identified frames. It should be understood that, for the following discussion of the systems and methods according to this invention, the term xe2x80x9cvideo signalxe2x80x9d encompasses a signal or group of signals including one or more, or all of, a sequence of video frames, any analog and/or digital audio data, any data that may reside in one or more side bands, and any ancillary analog and/or digital data, such as closed-captioning, that are transmitted or stored together. These signals further include any other known video type or signal or any other signal that would be obvious to incorporate into the xe2x80x9cvideo signal.xe2x80x9d Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the video signals may be broadcast, for example, by traditional broadcast techniques, or by cable television distribution services, analog and/or digital satellite systems, the Internet, an intranet, such as a local-area network or wide-area network, or any other wired or wireless network. Additionally, it should be appreciated that the video signal can be stored on traditional media, such as videocassettes, or on digital video disks, mini-disks, CD-ROM""s, or using volatile or non-volatile memory. Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the video frames of the video signal can be recorded by a video recorder, such as a camcorder, or displayed by a display device, such as a television, monitor, personal computer, overhead projector, or the like.
The systems and methods of this invention use a video recorder, such as a camcorder, television camera, high definition television camera, personal computer video recorder, or teleconferencing video recorder, supplied with a user input device, such as a button or trigger, or a more advanced graphical user interface. When a video image is recorded that the user wants to identify for subsequent manipulation, e.g., printer capture, video editing, or key frame identification, the user xe2x80x98presses a buttonxe2x80x99 causing the video recorder to identify at least one frame with a command signal appropriate for facilitating subsequent manipulation.
This invention provides systems and methods that manually embed one or more command signals in a video signal to identify at least one subsequent frame for manipulation.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that automatically embed at least one command signal to indicate that at least one subsequent frame is to be manipulated.
This invention separately provides a video recorder with a system or circuit that generates and records in the video signal a command signal identifying at least one frame.
This invention separately provides systems and methods that embed signals within the existing audio and/or video band of a video signal allowing the systems and methods to operate without modification to other system elements. Therefore, the systems and methods operate with existing broadcasts, recorded video systems, playback systems or editing systems.
This invention additionally provides systems and methods that automatically embed environmental information about the video recorder state into the video signal.
For example, in the various systems and methods according to this invention, a user is producing a video with the intention of video printing, video segmenting, or video editing in mind. By inserting commands into the video signal, implementing one of the above-indicated, or any other known or later developed post-recording actions is simplified. For example, a video signal could be embedded containing a capture/print command that could instruct a video printer to capture and print one or more frames of the video signal without requiring a user""s interaction. Therefore, a video printer, when placed in an appropriate mode, could automatically print information, or one or more frames of the video signal, identified by the print command inserted into the video signal by the video recorder. In an alternative mode, the systems and methods of this invention could automatically embed a signal indicating the environmental or operational state of the video recorder, e.g., pan, zoom, lighting conditions, or the like. Thus, subsequent editing is simplified since the video signal identifies any change in the camera state. By providing commands in the video signal, the user is provided with information pertaining to frames subsequent to the command.
The systems and methods of this invention may also be used equally well to add command data as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/167,553, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in or are apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.